Part I leads with a heading which establishes the role of Dr.

Watson as narrator and

sets up the narrative stand-point that the work to follow is not fiction, but fact:
"Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, MD, Late of the Army
Medical Department."

The story begins in 1881,[4] when Dr. Watson, having returned to London from
Afghanistan, runs into an old friend Stamford at the Criterion Restaurant,[5] who
had been a dresser under him at St. Bartholomew's Hospital .[6] Watson confides in
Stamford that, due to a shoulder injury that he sustained in the Anglo-Afghan War at
the Battle of Maiwand, he has been forced to leave the armed services and is now
looking for a place to live. Stamford mentions that an acquaintance of his, Sherlock
Holmes, is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat at 221B Baker Street, but
he cautions Watson about Holmes's eccentricities.

Stamford takes Watson back to St. Bartholomew's where, in a laboratory, they find
Holmes experimenting with a reagent, seeking a test to detect human haemoglobin.
Holmes explains the significance of bloodstains as evidence in criminal trials. After
Stamford introduces Watson to Holmes, Holmes shakes Watson's hand and
comments, "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive?" Though Holmes chooses not
to explain why he made the comment, Watson raises the subject of their parallel
quests for